Veronika the Cow Is the First Ever Proven to Use Tools on Purpose

Many animals have been studied and observed to have an incredible capacity for intelligence. Some of the most commonly cited examples of animal intelligence come from animals including primates, elephants, dolphins, and even crows. Notably, these animals do not live in close proximity to the majority of the world’s population. It takes dedicated researchers and scientists to test these animals’ intelligence.

Farm animals, specifically cows, which are more abundant, are rarely regarded as having intelligence or problem-solving abilities. Instead, those who tend to them are comfortable believing that cows are not clever. This may need to change, given what a tool-wielding cow has shown researchers about animal intelligence. Cows are not only practically intelligent but also emotionally intelligent.

Veronika Is the First Cow Known to Wield Tools

Cows do not have opposable thumbs. As a result, they are not considered animals capable of using tools. Do not tell a pet Swiss Brown cow named Veronika this, as she not only wields tools, as seen in her YouTube video, but she also manipulates them to achieve specific tasks.

For over a decade, Veronika has demonstrated problem-solving skills related to difficulty reaching body parts that itch. By placing a deck scrub broom in her mouth, the Austrian-born cow has proven to be able to reach her back and belly, places she otherwise would not have been able to target.

Veronika’s owner thought this was normal behavior. It was not until recently that a video of Veronika was shared with Alice Auersperg, a cognitive biologist at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna. Auersperg could not believe what she was seeing in the video. Veronika was deliberately using the deck scrub broom to scratch herself.

“When I saw the footage, it was immediately clear that this was not accidental,” Auersperg tells EurekAlert. “This was a meaningful example of tool use in a species that is rarely considered from a cognitive perspective.”

Consequently, Auersperg and Antonio Osuna-Mascaró, a colleague and a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, traveled to meet Veronika to conduct behavioral tests to better understand how Veronika uses her broom.

Veronika Proven to Be Capable of Understanding “Multi-Purpose Tool Use”

Initially, the video shown to Auersperg made it appear that Veronika used the deck scrub broom for a single purpose. By conducting a series of controlled trials, they found that regardless of the broom’s orientation, Veronika would pick it up by the end necessary to scratch the body part that was irritating her.

The study, published in January 2026 in Current Biology, documented Veronika’s flexible and intentional use of a deck scrub broom as a back scratcher. “Across randomized trials, she preferred the bristled end but switched to the stick end when targeting softer lower-body areas,” the authors write. Veronika exhibited this behavior consistently over the two weeks during which she was tested and observed. Consequently, both Auersperg and Osuna-Mascaró concluded that at least some cows are capable of multi-functional tool use, as demonstrated by Veronika.

“We show that a cow can engage in genuinely flexible tool use,” Osuna-Mascaró tells EurekAlert! “Veronika is not just using an object to scratch herself. She uses different parts of the same tool for different purposes, and she applies different techniques depending on the function of the tool and the body region.”

Humans and cattle have interacted for thousands of years. Therefore, it seems remarkable that this behavior has never been observed before. This has left many in the scientific community wondering in what other areas cows have been underestimated.

Why Have Cows Never Been Observed Using Tools Before?

Given that Veronika easily manipulated the deck scrub broom, the fact that other cows had never been observed using tools seemed strange. However, as the authors observe, it was never assumed that cows were capable of such behavior. Because of this, no one ever paid attention to what cows were doing.

“Despite millennia of domestication for productivity, livestock have been almost entirely excluded from discussions of animal intelligence,” the authors write in the study. “Veronika’s case challenges this neglect, revealing that technical problem-solving is not confined to large-brained species with manipulative hands or beaks.”

The authors continue, “Perhaps the real absurdity lies not in imagining a tool-using cow, but in assuming such a thing could never exist.”

Because of this, the authors believe there may be other cows or bulls using tools to make their lives easier. It is only the prejudice that humans have put on cows’ intelligence that may have made ranchers or researchers blind to this. As a result, Auersperg and Osuna-Mascaró are asking anyone who has witnessed similar behavior to contact them, so that tool use in cattle can be better understood.

Veronika’s Circumstances May Have Led to Her Ability to Use a Tool

Aside from the fact that cows and bulls have never been the subject of a study testing whether they can use a multi-functional tool, Auersperg and Osuna-Mascaró believe that Veronika’s life circumstances may play a role in her skills with the deck scrub broom.

Unlike most other cows, Veronika has lived a life as a member of the family. She has consistent human interaction, specifically with her favorite person and owner, Witgar Wiegel, and has lived to an age that many cows rarely do. According to the authors, this has enabled Veronika to live an enriched life in her green pastures, developing skills to solve problems that often arise, such as an out-of-reach itch.

Are Cows More Intelligent Than Given Credit For?

This study shows that cows have an intelligence that was once thought nonexistent. Often seen as animals that respond only to food and lack feelings, they are more easily kept in poor environments before slaughter or have their calves removed before they are ready to wean. Clearly, these commonly held beliefs are incorrect, and cows are indeed more intelligent than once believed.

“Cows and other highly intelligent and emotional animals are far too often written off as being dumb and lacking emotions,” Marc Bekoff, a University of Colorado emeritus professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, explains to CNN. “Detailed research shows they are fully sentient beings with very active brains and rich and deep emotional lives.”

Beckoff, who did not work on the study, continues, “While [Veronika] didn’t manufacture (make) the brush, she clearly learned it could be used to relieve her itching, and it felt good to do so. Since she clearly is cleverly manipulating the brush, I’m sure other cows have the bovine IQ to do it as well.”

Cows and humans have been intertwined in one another’s lives for 10,000 years or more. During that time, humans paid insufficient attention to the intelligence their herds exhibited. With scientific evidence showing that cows are competent at both problem-solving and using multifunctional tools, there is no telling what else bovines are capable of.